Facebook IPO reveals Erskine Bowles' 20,000 shares

May mean big pay-day for UNC president emeritus

Erskine Bowles, president emeritus of the University of North Carolina system, owns the rights to 20,000 shares in Facebook Inc. that can be cashed out for what may be a hefty pay-day.

Bowles, who serves on the social media company’s board of directors, was given this stake in the company as compensation in addition to a fee of $66,667, which includes an annual retainer fee, for his services on the board, according to Facebook’s initial public offering filing.

The shares Bowles holds, which are restricted stock that cannot be traded until a specified date, were valued by the company at $601,400, or $30.07 a share, as of the Feb. 2 filing. While the company did not disclose how many shares it plans to sell or at what price, the per-share value may rise–or fall–drastically once the shares hit the public market.

As a comparison, the shares of Facebook’s competitor in web advertising, Google Inc., are selling at more than 5.8 times their initial public offering price of $100 since the company went public in August 2004. Bloomberg News is reporting that Facebook’s valuation may end up being more than five times that of Google’s initial offering.

As the share price fluctuates on the public market, the initial public offering indicates that Bowles’ shares will be available to sell at the share price at the time on the following dates:

Oct. 13, 2012: 5,416 and two-sixth shares

After Oct. 13, 2012: 1,250 shares every three months for two years and nine months

Oct. 15, 2015: 833 and one-third shares

Facebook plans to sell its shares with the ticker “FB.”

Bowles joined the social media company’s board of directors in September 2011, serving alongside Marc Andreessen, Netscape co-founder and venture capitalist; James W. Breyer, president of Accel Management Co. and founder and chief executive officer of investment firm Breyer Capital; Donald E. Graham, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the Washington Post Co.; Reed Hastings, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Netflix; Peter A. Thiel, former chief executive officer and co-founder of PayPal; and Mark Zuckerberg, chairman of the board, chief executive and creator of Facebook.

“Erskine has held important roles in government, academia and business which have given him insight into how to build organizations and navigate complex issues,” Zuckerberg said in a Sept. 7 statement. “Along with his experience founding companies, this will be very valuable as we continue building new things to help make the world more open and connected.”

Bowles was president of the UNC System from 2006-2011 and the 2011 recipient of the the University Award, the UNC Board of Governors’ highest award.